CAPPING A STORIED CAREER

DR. JAMES DOBSON DEBUTS

‘BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY’

Global Simulcast of Lead Film Oct. 1-5,

WHAT: Capping a decades-long career of equipping parents to raise godly families, Dr. James Dobson’s BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY—an eight-DVD series that combines his updated classic Focus on the Family videos with four new films from Dr. Dobson and his son, Ryan—debuts Sept 30. YOUR LEGACY—one of the new films that equips parents and grandparents to build a lasting legacy of faith in their families—premieres in a worldwide simulcast in thousands of churches Oct. 1-5.

A personal story of faith, YOUR LEGACY traces Dr. Dobson’s own family history to show what a tremendous difference praying families can make. It is an inspiring look back . . . and forward. Dr. Dobson’s great-grandfather started daily prayers over a century ago that the next four generations of his family would be Christians. YOUR LEGACYexplores the breathtaking implications of intentionally giving your children a heritage of faith.

“It’s harder now to raise kids than it’s ever been because the culture is at war with families,” Dr. Dobson said. “I feel BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY contains the most important message of my career. There is nothing more important than parents passing on a generational legacy of faith and values to their children.”

BACKGROUND: More than 80 million people—a third of the U.S. population at the time—saw the original Focus on the Family films that shaped the way a generation viewed family and parenting. In 2008, Ryan Dobson found those films gathering dust and convinced his father that today’s generation of young parents needs Dr. Dobson’s timeless insight more than ever.

The result? The BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY DVDs with four classic films and four new films. The DVDs and simulcast are supported by new books from Dr. Dobson, Your Legacy, and Ryan, Wanting to Believe; by the updating and reissue of classic Dobson works such as Dare to Discipline and The Strong-Willed Child; and by a new series of study guides for the books and films.

WHO:DR. JAMES DOBSONAuthor of more than 40 books—including groundbreaking titles such as Dare to Discipline and The Strong-Willed Child, Dr. James Dobson is the nation’s leading advocate for the importance of godly families. He currently heads Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, a nonprofit ministry and radio program. For 14 years, he was an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and was on the attending staff of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles for 17 years. He earned his doctorate in child development from USC.

RYAN DOBSONRyan Dobson is a best-selling author, speaker and broadcast personality who calls people out of moral relativism and into “the ultimate adventure” of following Christ. He is vice president of broadcasting at Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk and serves as associate producer of the BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY film series.

WHEN/WHERE: BUILDING A FAMILY LEGACY DVDs are available wherever Christian resources are sold.

The church and on demand simulcast of the first film in the series—airing Oct. 1-5—is free.

Charlie Lowell (Jars of Clay): Some advice a good friend, kind of counselor friend, told me a few years ago – and it’s not so much for your son’s age, but he said, “Always remember that your kids have a complex inner world and that our tendency is to simplify it and put it in a box and go, ‘They’re being that.’ But usually there’s so much more going on inside to pull out and pay attention to.”

JFH (John): I think the key is to try to remember what it’s like to be that age.

Charlie: Yeah. Which is hard to remember.

JFH (John): With writing a song like “Boys (Lesson One),” how did you draw inspiration for creating a song like that [for your sons]?

Charlie: A lot of it was learning about ourselves. And that we look to these places to find our worth because we weren’t necessarily given it at the right age. I mean, Bono jokes about “I need to get in front of 80,000 people a night to be reminded that somebody cares,” or he has some kind of self-deprecating joke about the need for people’s approval. And it’s not that extreme for us, but I think a lot of the voices as men and boys that we hear is like “You don’t have what it takes. You don’t measure up, why try? Someone else is going to do it better than you.” So it just was kind of an effort to offer something different to our kids, y’know?

JFH (John): So what kind of surprises would you say a new parent should expect?

Charlie: I think just the innate wildness of boys. Just this kind of rambunctious energy that he’s not learning from his brothers – he’s growing into it and discovering it. But so far it’s still cute and sweet with Finn, but pretty soon it’s going to be annoying or…

JFH (Sean Lex): Destructive. *laughs*

Charlie: Yeah! I’m sure.

JFH (John): *to Sean* Can you relate to that?

JFH (Sean): Ohhh yeah! We have several broken lightsabers in our patio box to prove that.

JFH (John): At least they’re toys though… Unless he’s smashing stuff around the house with it.

JFH (Sean): Nah, they are. Well, part of it’s my fault. *John laughs*

Charlie: Yeah, baby proofing. Like, what level do we want to change our house to avoid damage?

JFH (John): I’ve heard different aspects to where people completely baby-proof to others just teaching their child not to touch certain things. So I’ll have to do trial and error. My office will never be baby proof.

Charlie: Unless he’s doing something really dangerous and harmful, you can kind of ignore it. Like, Finn’s throwing food on the floor for the dog, and the more we get upset about it, the more he enjoys the attention. It’s like, he’s going to outgrow it, we have hardwood floors and we have a dog that cleans up after the baby. *laughter*

For the full interview with Charlie about Jars of Clay’s latest album, “The Shelter,” visit Jesusfreakhideout.com.

I’m a bit new to the concept of frequent blogging, but as I’m venturing into these previously personally uncharted waters of pending parenthood, I’m finding there’s plenty to ponder and reflect on when it comes to this topic. (And while Amy continues to fall victim to nausea and an intense work schedule, it’s kind of up to me to carry the proverbial DiBiase baby torch)

On Wednesday, I went for my routine dental cleaning (something I’ve been doing regularly since having to undergo quite a bit of dental work a couple years ago after skipping the dentist for years at a time), and the topic of my pending parenthood came up. I never thought I’d find so much encouragement from a dental hygienist, but it was cool to find myself, spit-sucker-thingie danging from my mouth lying agape, conversing with her about my fears and concerns while she shared her own experiences with parenthood. It’s neat to hear the unanimous and overwhelming positivity that is always expressed by current parents about the subject matter of parenthood. It was cool to discuss even the “divine plan” – words that the hygienist herself actually used, knowing where I’m coming from – getting more than just a tooth scraping from this particular visit.

And tonight, I attended the latest TobyMac tour and had the opportunity to sit down with the singer/songwriter to discuss his latest project for a JFH interview. At the end of our talk, I hit him with one last question — “Do you have any advice for new parents?” At first, the question seemed to bounce off McKeehan’s forehead and drop straight to the floor. “Are you a new parent?” he asked. “I will be, come this October!” I replied. He immediately got excited and reached out his hand to connect with mine and congratulated me. As usual with people I share the news, I expressed how terrified I am, and he was quick to inform me that he has two significant regrets in life — taking six years of courting before finally tying the knot with his wife, and waiting five years to have children, discovering upon having his first son Truett that he wished they’d started a family sooner. These are the kind of positive thoughts and expressions I kind of want to “store up in my heart,” so to speak. And I genuinely look forward to telling everyone “You were right!” after the munchkin arrives.

Speaking of the interview, as a side note here, I hope to feature Toby’s full answer on here soon (and I’m debating on whether or not to make it a LJF exclusive as well ;) ).

In the meantime, I’ll continue to work on these fears of mine… ;) Enjoy one of my favorite pics I took from tonight’s show!